Loss of child custody: The voices of women, mothers and drug users

Abstract

This research analyses how women who accessed type III CAPS and who were in situation of loss, or imminent loss, of custody of their children, evaluate both the process of caring for their children and losing their custody. This qualitative research involved interviews with three mothers. Caring for the interviewees involved attending to both material and affective needs. They evaluated their care as being positive. However, their drug use practices distanced them from the idealized standard of womanhood and motherhood, imputing to them the role of being negligent. The obligation of treatment as a condition for the return of custody of the children to the mother is seen a double-edged sword: for some mothers this obligation led them to accept and get the treatment, while for others this obligation led them to abandon treatment and the possibility of getting their children back.